Wire fence.



B. L. ELWELL & W. GRIMM.

WIRE FENCE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 15, 1904.

Patented May 17, 1910.

$2 z gzzfa fa Maw UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BRADEN L. ELWELL AND WILLIAM GRIMM, OF MORTON, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNORS TO INTERLOCKING FENCE COMPANY, OF MORTON, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

WIRE FENCE.

Patented May 17, 1914).

Original application filed April 4, 1904;, Serial No. 201,398. Divided and this application filed July 15, 1904. Serial No. 216,638.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, BRADEN L. ELWELL and TILLIAM GRIMM, citizens of the United States, residing at Morton, in the county of Tazewell and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in -Wire Fences; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention has reference to wire fences and relates particularly to a fence fabric composed of longitudinal or strand wires and to stay wires formed of short sections spanning the spaces between the strand wires; the said stay sections having their opposite ends bent at right angles and parallel, forming radial extensions which coincide with corresponding radial extensions of adjoining stay sections, the same being intertwisted in reverse directions or in a right and left manner with the longitudinal wires of the fabric. The length of the succeeding stay sections are preferably disposed in the same vertical line and between adjacent longitudinal wires and have the appearance of a continuous stay from selvage wire to selvage wire.

The invention herein is a division of the application filed by us on April 4:, 1904: and bearing Serial No. 201,398.

The invention consists further in the novel features of construction hereinafter fully described and claimed and illustrated by the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an elevation of a short section of fence embodying our invention; Fig. 2 is an elevation of a stay, reduced in size, showing the formed radial extensions thereof, the ends of the adjacent sections of which coincide and are intertwisted with a strand wire.

Like numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout the figures.

In the drawings, 1 denotes the outside or selvage wires of a fence fabric. They may be single strands of wire, but we prefer as shown in the drawings, to employ a selvage wire formed into a cable strand by the intertwisting of a series of strand wires, as shown in Fig. 1. The intermediate strands, longitudinal or body wires 2, are preferably single strands as shown in the drawing and while the fence shown in Fig. 1 consists of top and bottom selvage wires and one intermediate strand wire, it is of course understood that the fence may be of any suitable height, using as many intermediate strands as is desirable and make a fence having a graduated as well as a uniform mesh. See Fig. 2 wherein a stay is shown consisting of sections which would be connected with two selvage wires and three strand or body wires.

3 indicates stay wires adapted to connect the selvage wires 1 and the intermediate strand wires 2 where they intersect. The stay wires have the straight body portions 4: and their opposite ends are bent to form the right angle or radial portions 5 which coincide with similar portions of adjoining sections of stays, which connect adjacent strand wires. The radial portions 5 together with the strand and cable selvage wires are gripped at points 6 by means and in a manner to be described for the purpose of reversely twisting the said radial portions of the stay sections and the strand and selvage wires to form a right and left intertwist therewith.

In the operation of connecting the radial portions of the stay sections to the body and selvage wires, the selvage and body wires are fed to twisters having slotted portions into which the body and selvage wires are dropped, and the stay sections are fed trans- Versely to the longitudinal bearing of the body and selvage wires and the formed radial ends thereof are dropped into the slotted portions of the twistersin like manner as the selvage and body wires, with the radial portions of adjacent stay sections lying parallel and coinciding with a corresponding strand wire. The arrangement of the twisters is such, that they grip the longitudinal wires and formed radial ends of the stays at a point 6 and by actuating the twisters, the formed radial ends of the stays and body and selvage wires are intertwisted in reverse directions from the gripping portions 6 forming an intertwist in a direction right and left on the opposite sides of the gripping portions 6, leaving a plain portion of the wires as at 6 and the free ends of the formed radial ends of the stay sections which lie parallel with and adjacent to the body of the longitudinal wires as at 7, see Fig. 1 or in some other convenient manner.

The preferred form of stay is shown in Fig. l where the twisting is all done in one direction and all of the twists measured along the longitudinal wires in the same direction. However, it is understood that the right and left form of intertwist may be left and right according to the direction in which the twisters are rotated.

In twisting the formed ends of a stay with the selva-ge wire, when formed of a cable, the cable wire may be formed at the time the formed ends of the stay sections are intertwisted therewith or a cable fed to the machine during the twisting, and intertwist the formed ends of the stays therewith.

lVe are aware that the forming of a stay composed of short sections is old, also that a stay composed of short sections having the formed ends coiled or wrapped around the longitudinal wires is old. But we are not aware, that a stay has been used, composed of short sections with formed radial ends which are intertwisted with the longitudinal wires by a right and left intertwist, as shown in the drawings.

Having thus fully described our invention what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

A fence comprising line wires, stays formed of short lengths of wire having their ends bent at an angle, the angular ends of adjacent lengths extending parallel to the line wires, and connected therewith by a right and left intertwist.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures, in presence of two witnesses.

BRADEN L. ELWELL. WILLIAM GRIMlVL VVi-tnesses J osnrn HAUTER, J r., CHAS. WV. LA Ponrn. 

